Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Closing date: 07 Feb 2018
Reports to: Regional Grants Adviser – Middle East (dotted line to Grants Manager - Policy & Practice)
Location: London, UK (plus international travel max 5 weeks per year)
Salary: circa £25,000 per annum
Contract: Fixed term 2 years
Hours: Full time (37.5 hours)
BACKGROUND
Over the past 80 years, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has developed unparalleled expertise in responding to emergencies and helping uprooted communities to rebuild. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster.
The International Rescue Committee UK is part of the IRC global network, which has its headquarters in New York and London. The IRC is on the ground in more than 40 countries, providing emergency relief, relocating refugees and rebuilding lives in the wake of disaster. Through over 20 regional offices in cities across the United States, the IRC also helps refugees resettle in the US and become self-sufficient.
The IRC is committed to a culture of bold leadership, innovation in all aspects of our work, creative partnerships and, most crucially, accountability to those we serve. The IRC is a tireless advocate for the most vulnerable.
IRC-UK
Our European headquarters, IRC-UK, were established in London in 1997 to support the organisation’s global activities and particularly to diversify its donor base and be able to better advocate with European policy-makers on behalf of the people we serve. Since its establishment IRC-UK has grown rapidly and is now acknowledged for its high quality project management, technical expertise in governance and rights and economic recovery, and innovative thinking on early recovery and gender based violence. IRC-UK comprises approximately 100 staff across five departments.
The IRC also has offices in Berlin, Brussels and Geneva.
The Awards Management Unit (AMU)
Established in January 2016, the Awards Management Unit (AMU) is a global unit spanning New York, Washington DC, London, Nairobi and Amman. It has responsibility for identifying, securing and managing all funding from statutory donors. The Unit is organised into five directorates: Strategic Partnerships & Analytics, Grants Management & Frameworks, Compliance & Policy, Programme Development & Training.
The AMU is a bridge between donors and the field: providing expert technical advice to the field while maintaining portfolio-level visibility to ensure consistency and compliance and manage risk. The AMU ensures that donor compliance policies and procedures are implemented consistently and supports all staff working across the grants management cycle for all restricted funding from global government sources. The Unit operates within a matrix management system across the teams in the US and the UK, driving functional integration between all relevant units and staff in collaboration with the Vice President of the AMU and the Senior Vice President for Europe in relation to overarching issues with European donors. The matrix management structure ensures that AMU staff support the Europe strategy and work towards the pursuit of new opportunities while IRC-UK maintains accountability for European funding.
The Purpose of the Role
The Regional Grants Assistant (RGA) supports the Regional Grants Advisor for Middle East and Policy & Practice Grants Manager across regions to ensure successful implementation of IRC European donor award requirements and reporting, ensuring basic compliance, accurate financial information, good quality narratives on programme outputs and updating key internal systems and processes for effective management of these awards.
Key Working Relationships
· Reports to Regional Grants Adviser – Middle East
· Dotted line reporting to Grants Manager– Policy & Practice
· Regional, country office, and technical units team members
· Other AMU colleagues to ensure coordination and information sharing
Key Accountabilities:
Award Management (50%)
- Support in the management of the European award portfolio for the Middle East and Policy & Practice. Support in the management of other portfolios as is relevant and necessary may also be requested.
- Support the review of narrative and financial reports; consulting with and ensuring input from relevant staff.
- Support budget realignments and grant amendments/modifications, where necessary.
- Support in monitoring projects to ensure progress against objectives and compliance with donor guidelines.
- Assist country offices with ad-hoc queries on standard donor compliance issues.
- Track and document lessons learned from finalised projects and ensure they are fed into the programme development team.
- Refer high level compliance matters to Regional Grants Advisor and P&P Grants Manager for consultation with the Compliance team.
- Stay informed about programmatic issues and security and political developments in the region and how they might affect program implementation.
· Maintain all trackers and reporting schedules.
· Support country offices in keeping OTIS (IRC grant management software) up to date.
· Review T1s (project coding) and liaise with country grants staff and HQ Finance to have accurate T1s issued.
· Maintain grant files and publish IATI data as needed.
Capacity Building and Training (10%)
- Assist in the development and maintenance of work processes and checklists for grant implementation, monitoring and report review.
- Assist in the development of training materials.
Coordination (20%)
- Maintain a strong relationship with the regional, field, and technical units team members – offering regular support on reporting and compliance issues, in coordination with Regional Grants Advisor and P&P Grants Manager.
- Maintain a strong relationship with all Awards Management Unit (AMU) pillars to ensure the use of all templates, guidance, policies and procedures established by the AMU.
- Liaise with support departments and other teams outside of AMU as needed in order to provide the best support to country offices and technical units.
Other (20%)
· Provide coverage for key programme/support functions in the field/ technical units as requested, to assist with short-term gaps and emergency support
- Provide back-up support when Regional Grants Advisor/ P&P Grants Manager are absent
- Assist with the organisation of conferences, workshops and meetings as requested
· Other duties as assigned by supervisor
Qualifications
Essential
Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:
- Degree, preferably in a subject related to IRC’s work (International Relations, Refugee or Migration Studies, Development Studies, Public Policy), or equivalent experience
- Understanding of European institutional donors and their requirements, experience working with European donors preferred (e.g. DFID, ECHO, GIZ, Irish Aid, SIDA)
- Understanding of humanitarian aid and development programming preferably in the Middle East context
- Ability to work collaboratively as part of a diverse team and manage a varied workload
- Able to multi-task and work to tight deadlines
- Excellent communication skills including active listening and verbal and written English
- Solid organisational skills, detail oriented, ability to multi task and prioritise tasks, and to learn quickly
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; the ability to successfully and effectively liaise with people within and across departments in a multi-cultural environment
- Both a team player and independent performer in a very fast-paced environment
- A flexible work attitude and a calm manner
- Good IT skills (Word, Outlook, Excel)
- Experience in writing, reviewing and editing narrative and financial reports and excellent attention to detail
Desirable:
- Experience working in an NGO, preferably in a field location or in a headquarters role working with country office colleagues
- Experience with publishing IATI data
IRC-UK strives to be an equal opportunities employer. IRC-UK is committed to equality of opportunity and to non-discrimination for all job applicants and employees, and we seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, nationality, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.
How to apply:
The deadline for applications is 7th February 2018 Interviews will take place around 16th February 2018.
Candidates must have the right to work in the UK.IRC-UK strives to be an equal opportunities employer. IRC-UK is committed to equality of opportunity and to non-discrimination for all job applicants and employees, and we seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce regardless of gender, race, religious beliefs, nationality, ethnic/national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability.
If you have any questions or need assistance with the online recruitment process, please contact the UK HR team at applications@rescue-uk.org